AFL should ease cap in heat: Buckley

Date: February 18 2013

Sam Lienert

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley expects the AFL to scale back its planned trial of a cap on interchange rotations if there is a continuation of the hot weather in which the pre-season competition opened.

St Kilda, Adelaide and Port Adelaide players struggled through their triple-header in temperatures as high as 38 degrees at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

But they were at least able to have six interchange players and make team changes for each of their two mini-matches per side.

In the later rounds, teams will play full-length games, with three interchange players, one substitute and a limit of 20 rotations per quarter, a trial geared towards potentially introducing such a cap in the 2014 season proper.

Buckley, whose Magpies are due to play their first match under the cap against West Coast in Perth on March 3, said while he understood the AFL's desire to trial the cap, introducing it during one of the hottest periods of the year could be problematic.

"We obviously care for the welfare of our players," the Magpies coach told reporters in the Victorian town of Healesville, where the club are holding their community camp.

"It's probably something the AFLPA (players' association) will look pretty strongly at over the next couple of days in particular.

"I can understand the AFL's want to gather information about the cap on rotations and try to make it as realistic as possible with a three and one interchange bench.

"But if we're playing in 35-degree-plus conditions, whether it's Collingwood or any other team, I think there's a duty of care to the playing group to make sure that we shuffle things a little bit to make sure players aren't under undue duress at this stage of the season in particular.

"I'm sure the AFL and (players' association) will come to an arrangement there and I'd be surprised if we didn't see some movement to support the welfare of players."

Buckley said if the AFL did press ahead with the cap in hot weather, the information gathered would barely translate to the regular season anyway.

"If you're taking statistics from a 37, or what was it in Adelaide on the weekend, 38-degree day, with a three-and-one bench and cap of 80 rotations, that's not going to happen very often in June or through the middle of home and away," he said.

"You're not working off a level playing field."

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